Gold to Airy Thinness Beat

Chapter Eight

They wouldn't let her fight.

Stephanie stared at Colonel Phillips, her mind almost numb with shock. "You -- the procedure worked! You can see it did!"

"I can see that you and Dr. Erskine conspired to defraud the United States Army," Phillips shot back. "You're lucky I don't have you arrested!" At the look on her face he added, "What did you think I would do? Reward you? Applaud your deception? Send you out on the front lines?"

"Why not?" Stephanie demanded. "I'm good enough. You know I am. I chased down that Hydra operative and that was only minutes after the procedure!"

"Chased him down, and then stood there while he killed himself!"

"You wouldn't have him at all if I hadn't gone!" Stephanie shouted back. "Or his submersible! Sir, please," her voice wavered only slightly, but from passion, not tears. She hadn't cried in public, barring Bucky who was family, in years and certainly wasn't going to start for the likes of Phillips. "I can do this. Send me out there. Let me fight."

Phillips was already shaking his head and turning away, dismissing her. "You'd distract the troops, and make us a laughingstock. No man would ever follow you and you'd most likely pass out from fear at the first sign of battle."

Stephanie resisted the urge to do something she probably wouldn't regret. Fear wasn't limited to, or by, gender. She'd seen the look in the eyes of the departing soldiers, in Bucky's eyes as he'd boarded that train the last time she'd seen him. Courage and bravery didn't mean the absence of fear, it meant forward in spite of it.

"I don't need anyone to follow me," she insisted. "Send me in alone. You let Agent Carter go alone!"

"Agent Carter does not fight on the front lines!" Phillips retorted, his voice rising to a shout as he spun to face her again. He raised a finger to jab at her like a spear. "You an experiment and a failed one as far as the Army is concerned. You're also a liar and I'm damn well not rewarding you for it." He nodded toward Brandt. "He's got some asinine plan for you. You're his problem now."

And, with that, he was gone leaving Stephanie shaking with frustration behind him, her hands clenched in fists at her sides. Peggy followed him, shaking her head and mouthing, "I'm sorry" as she followed. She might claim to like her, Stephanie thought bitterly, but the other woman certainly wasn't willing to stand up and fight for her. Stark followed soon after leaving her alone in the room with Brandt.

He approached her, openly appraising her in a way that made her skin crawl, and said casually, "You know, they're changing the stories the papers plan to run."

Stephanie frowned at him, her emotions still running high. "What?"

"It's an embarrassment," he explained. "The United States Army fooled by a little girl and a German scientist."

"What does his being German matter?" Stephanie asked in annoyance.

Brandt shrugged. "Might make people wonder if he was really on our side or just trying to slow us down, sabotage us."

"He died," Stephanie said, her jaw clenched. "I'm pretty sure that shows whose side he was on."

"It shows he wasn't on Hydra's side, not that he was on ours," Brandt corrected. "Regardless, this whole...thing," he waved an arm absently to indicate her and the room, "leaves a lot of very powerful people with egg on their face, and a whole lot of wasted money to explain away."

Stephanie flinched. It wasn't wasted, she wanted to insist, not when the program worked. It was their own damned pride and bruised egos that were getting in the way of her being used the way they'd wanted, on the front lines.